So today was the first day of moving my hands from the rungs on the jungle gym where they have been for eight years. Until today, I have been a stay-at-home mom--a term I studiously avoided for the first years as I took on small ad-hoc projects and started my own marketing agency. It is a term I now use with a great deal of happiness--I have loved staying home with my kids. Not everyone has the opportunity--which was largely brought about by my husband who has always supported me being home or me being at work, or me being where I need to be at that time. I have no regrets about stepping out. I think.
A couple of weeks ago I attended a "re-launch" conference in New York. It was amazing for me in several ways. Not the least of which was finding out that Amtrak is so much better than driving. But I digress. Here's what I learned:
One: There are so many amazing women who are out of the workforce and some (lucky world) want back in. The woman sitting next to me held a PhD in health policy and an MBA from Harvard Business School. She had stepped out because her husband had a stroke. Now she was teaching at a community college as she tried to find her way back in. There were others like her, and not like her--each of us has our own story on stepping out and stepping in. We just need someone to listen to why we want back in.
Two: When the leader of the conference asked the women conference attendees to raise their hands if they are a current or past president of the PTO (Parent Teacher Organization) in their time away, about 80% of the room raised their hands. We are all still Type A. We all know how to manage, how to multi-task, how to deal with the world's toughest and sometimes unreasonable clients (yep, the little tiny ones). The only clients who are not always right.
Three: The biggest challenge to most of us was how to network and show our abilities. This is ironic as most of us are pretty good at networking for our children, or for our households or for our non-profit work. But when it comes to ourselves getting back to business, we don't know how to start.
The way to start is to just get out of the house. Make an appointment with a former work colleague--she or he does not remember you from hair-up-in-a-scrunchy, dribbled-on-sweats and no-shower-for-days days. No, they remember you from Brooks Brothers suits and possibly, unfortunately, the shoulder pad days.
Join a career relaunch program. That's what I did. Nine women who are just like me. Just looking for their next rung on their own personal jungle gym of life. And are looking to give each other a leg up.
Let's go.
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